Exclusive: No cases of West Nile virus in Hampton Roads

While Virginia reported its first two cases of West Nile virus late this week, and infected mosquitoes have been detected in the region, Hampton Roads has not recorded a case affecting people in several years.

Larry Hill, public information officer for the Eastern Region of the state Health Department, applauds the work of local mosquito control agents for keeping Hampton Roads disease-free. "They're doing a lot better job than I'm hearing from other parts of the country. That's a big part of it," he says.

In Hampton, where no mosquitoes have tested positive, staff continue to conduct tests daily. "There has been a slight increase in the number of adult mosquitoes in the last week, but that number is still below normal for this time of year," Chris DeHart, environmental services manager, reported Friday. The city has conducted 14 truck sprays this year and plans to do more as needed.(Residents can request spraying by calling 311, or 727-8311 from a cell phone, or online at Hampton.gov/publicworks/mosquito.)

Nationwide, more than 690 cases of West Nile virus have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control this year, the highest number since the virus was first detected in 1999. Almost half are concentrated in Texas. Virginia typically records between one and five cases annually, though the number spiked at nine, including one death, in 2011. The two reported this week are in the northwestern and southwestern regions of the state.

As president of public information officers for the National Public Health Information Coalition, Hill talks regularly to colleagues around the country, including hard-hit Texas.

"It's interesting some of the challenges they're having," he says, citing requests for irrelevant information, such as where deaths occurred.

"It doesn't matter where you live. You can be somewhere else and bring it back with you," he says. West Nile is transmitted to people by a bite from an infected mosquito, which picks up the virus from a bird. It cannot be transmitted person-to-person by casual contact.

Experts are blaming the mild winter for the early appearance of infected mosquitoes, which are usually confined to a season running from late August through September. Locally, Eastern equine encephalitis, another less common mosquito-borne disease, has also been detected in mosquitoes. However, there hasn't been a case of EEE in humans in the entire state since 2003, according to Hill.

By taking proper precautions to avoid mosquito bites — avoiding going outdoors during peak mosquito activity at dusk and dawn, covering up, applying EPA-approved repellent, and having working window screens — people minimize their chances of contracting the West Nile virus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vast majority of those who are infected have no symptoms. A small percentage of people will have mild flu-like symptoms that may last several weeks and only one in 150 will exhibit more severe symptoms that can include nausea, muscle weakness, disorientation and coma. Those most at risk are people over 50 and those with compromised immune systems.